China's rural areas forced to take extreme measures[SARS]

Straits Times ^ | May 11 | By Jason Leow

[DeaconBenjamin]

BAODING (Hebei) - Sars has forced China's rural areas to take extreme measures to flush out suspected victims.

Provinces surrounding Beijing, the Sars epicentre for northern China, adopted tough measures as a result of the capital's lax control on migrant workers who travelled en masse before the Labour Day break.

Reports have estimated that some 2.3 million workers escaped from Beijing to different parts of the country, possibly taking Sars home.

Now some of the worst-hit areas are provinces and municipalities, such as Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Tianjin, around the capital.

In northern Hebei province, which has more than 150 cases, the city of Baoding has ordered all its community clinics to close.

Closing the more than 25 community clinics, some smaller than a 4D and Toto outlet in Singapore, helps to shrink the network of medical facilities for easier contact tracing.

Baoding, 140 km south-west of Beijing, has fewer than half a million residents.

Its 12 hospitals have been ordered to transfer all suspected and confirmed Sars patients to the Baoding Infectious Diseases Hospital, the city's only Sars-designated facility.

A sign outside the Baoding Community Healthcare Centre says the 'authorities have stopped services to external parties'.

A nurse there told The Sunday Times that the clinic now only serves prisoners at the Baoding No 2 Prison next door.

The move comes on top of other severe measures imposed by the city government. Cars entering the border from Beijing are immediately disinfected, and passengers are required to take their temperatures. Those who are well are sent off with a health advisory and a songsheet with lyrics to the Fight Sars anthem.

Since Thursday, the city has stopped the sale of all flu and fever drugs in an attempt to prevent people from self-medicating.

The ban applies also to the popular herbal medicine Ban Lan Gen, which the Chinese believe cures the common cold. Ban Lan Gen has been sold out in major Sars-hit cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.

'Now anyone with a fever or cold is forced to go to a hospital,' said an administrator at Beiyiyao, one of Baoding's biggest medical suppliers, who wanted to be known only as Miss Liu.

Other cities and provinces are also not letting down their guard. Shanxi, where there are more than 400 cases, has put all returning migrant workers in quarantine for 14 days.

[DeaconBenjamin]

It doesn't sound like things are getting better.

[Domestic Church]

"...extreme measures to flush out suspected victims."

Can you imagine being sick as a dog and being hunted just because you are sick...what a nightmare!

[Domestic Church]

"Those who are well are sent off with a health advisory and a songsheet with lyrics to the Fight Sars anthem."

Stay on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, stay on the sunny side of life, you'll feel no pain as we drive you insane, so stay on the sunny side of life!

[Ditter]

Yes & what if you only have a common cold & you are hauled off to the SARS hospital where you will catch SARS for sure. Awful!

[dc-zoo]

They need to put a stop to the "exotic animal cooks" as well. No more dog, cat, or badger stew for a while.

[The Pheonix]

We should be thankful that at least China is treating SARS as a very very serious problem and is taking drastic steps to combat it.

This is war, war against an invisible, ruthless and savage foe, no quarters will be given........

[American in Israel]

Closing the more than 25 community clinics, some smaller than a 4D and Toto outlet in Singapore, helps to shrink the network of medical facilities for easier contact tracing.

A perfect example why socialism is a failure. By closing the clinics to consolidate power, most SARS patients will now stay home and infect their villages. BUT! Hey, the paperwork will be simpler.

[11B3]

I guess the time to quarantine China is rapidly approaching, to let the disease run its' course there and there alone.

[The Pheonix]

FYI, Singapore is a small Island State with a popultion of 3 million and it is just one big metropolis , a gigantic concrete-jungle

It is anything but socialist, it is more capitalistic than the US

[buffyt]

Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers!

(Just a funny line from a Wierd Al movie UHF)

[American in Israel]

Indeed, and democratic governments do not close the clinics in "China's rural areas" to make it easier to track patients.

FYI, Singapore is a small Island State with a popultion of 3 million and it is just one big metropolis , a gigantic concrete-jungle.

-grin- And just exactly what does Singapore have to do with the price of clinics in China?

Hey, easy to misread a post in the wee hours of the morning...

[The Pheonix]

guess so, it must be the wee hours

how red my face


:-)

[aristeides]

Ping.

[Judith Anne]

Incredible. This is a very bizarre set of actions...I have an idea that the Chinese emergency is far far worse than we imagine...

[Judith Anne]

I'm just imagining how this would seem in the US, for instance.

The latest SARS update from a hypothetical midwest state: All hospitals except say one city and one county hospital closing their ERs, having all patients go to one intake area for evaluation for SARS, then sent off to a) a hospital for obvious SARS patients, no matter what else is wrong, including a broken leg or hot appendix or b) a hospital which will keep patients quarantined until they come down with SARS or not, no matter what else is wrong, including sick gall bladders or breast lumps or c) a hospital that intakes anyone who can be proven not to have SARS--in other words, political officials, favored mistresses, community leaders, local folks able to bribe a doctor or d) a building which will keep everybody who has waited too long and is now dying of SARS, with a self-contained "disposal" unit.

All doctors' offices and urgent care clinics--closed.

*Sigh*. As I typed this speculation, it all began to seem too real...

[blam]

"Can you imagine being sick as a dog and being hunted just because you are sick...what a nightmare!"

Yup. Mobs, torches and dogs flashed into my mind.

[Betty Jo]

Shock and awe in plain sight.

Panic

Chaos

Anarchy

Revolution

Is the world just re-arranging the Titanics deck chairs?

[Domestic Church]

You outlined this scenerio very well...but we will be using stadiums and closed army facilities for general population quarantines.

[riri]

but we will be using stadiums and closed army facilities for general population quarantines

hmmm...Remember these tin foil stories floating around about Y2K time?

There over 600 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States.

[TEXOKIE]

goose bump bump here